MEN WHO ARE LEAVING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 138, 11 June 1912, Page 2

MEN WHO ARE LEAVING

GLOOMY ACCOUNTS. [bt telegraph— press association.] AUCKLAND. 10th June. Miners are leaving Waihi by the score. Some are seeking employment in Auckland, while' others are going further afield, another batch having left by the Wiinmera for Sydney to-night. From these men something of the real truth au to the present situation in the eoldfields town was gleaned by a Herald reporter. A married man, ( with five children, was amongst those spoken to. "I simply had to get out," he said. "My money had dwindled and dwindled, until I had no more than would keep me tor another fortnight. It was a case of getting work or begging, and I haven't come to that yet. So 1 broke away and have obtained employment in Auckland. Twenty unions wouldn't have stopped me leaving, when to stay meant to. see my wife and children starving. They talk of giving out 30s per week per man in strike pay, but, take it from me, that's all talk. Where are they going to get it from?" "There would have been no strike if the whole of us had been consulted," remarked one of the miners who sailed by the Wimmera. "There's not the slightest doubt about that. One section of the men caused- the whole tiling, and the rest of us had to have their 'ism' thrust down our throats, whether we liked it or not. They oudy have one 'ism.' and that ib Socialism." "If the strike lasts another month," said another miner seen on board the outgoing Sydney boat, "tho leaders of the movement stand a big chance of being drummed out of Waihi. Nothing could have happened that is better calculated to knock the Federation of Labour crowd right out. The trouble at Waihi is that, whilst there is a strong party of supporters of the Arbitration Court, there are no orators amongst them. On tho other hand, the federa- ! tion supporters have 'the gift of the gab,' and. can talk others into following them blindly. Then, again, the federationists are so intolerant that we who differ from them aren't allowed to have an opinion of our own." ! Other miners from. W.aibi declared that all that enabled them to stay there as ! long as they have done was the fact that the strike came at pay-time. The money' drawn then, however, ib in most cases run out now, and the majority of the men, especially the married men, not having much saved, are now on \ their beam ends. • "Most of them, married and single, are now on their 'beam ends,' " said one of the departing miners, t"and' matters are terribly serious. Houseß, for instance, which were let lor 255" and 30s a week, are' being rented at present for 7s and Bs." EMPHATIC DENIAL. WAIHI, 10th June. At a mass meeting of miners on Mon. day the attitude of the federation declining'to accept the mine-owners' condition that, the Minors' Union and En-gine-drivers' , Union must settle their own difference before the conference could take place was approved. The following resolution, paused at the moet- &%* .was "handed over by- the oliHinuau

(Mr. W. M'Lennan) for publication, with a statement that it had been car- | ried without dissent : — "This meeting of the 1 Waihi Workers' Union resents and emphatically denies the imputation circulated by the capitalistic press of the Dominion that the Btrike has been originated and is being conducted by a few individuals, and considers the allegation that the workers are being led as j an insult to the intelligent workers i here." j